Hello, John Piper

Unfortunately too many who view the world through social media lenses know John Piper more for his "Farewell, Rob Bell" comment more than most anything else. I've been blessed by Dr. Piper's ministry for years. First discovering him through Desiring God and then a mad scramble to read the rest of his key books (Let the Nations Be Glad, Future Grace). Then Bruce Ware let me borrow boxes of John Piper sermon tapes, which I devoured while at work during seminary years. 

I heard Piper speak at Southern Seminary where he called the seminary dangerous because it's beautiful and safe. I asked him about whether tax exempt status for churches caused us to not speak out more and he just said we need to be bold. I heard Piper speak at The Founders Conference in Birmingham where he spoke on mission and caused me to aspire to become a missionary to a Muslim country. I heard Piper speak on mission again at the International Mission Board gathering at Ridgecrest, NC where I asked him to sign his books for me during a youth event and asked if he felt odd signing books since it means he's a "celebrity." He said he doesn't seek it out but won't say no. We got to chat with Noel several times as during the conference as we dropped off our kids to the same place for childcare during the week-long event. She was dropping off Talitha. I've been to the Desiring God conference and the Desiring God Pastor's conference and got to sit at lunch with other young pastors and Dr. Piper and grill him on ministry, hot theological topics, and more. 

Nameless other Piper podcasts, books, pamphlets, lectures, and sermons have blessed me over the years. I often talk about my favorite-ever sermons as Piper sermons. I love "Running With The Witnesses" because I so easily fall in love with things that don't help me run the race. I have been influenced by Piper on theology, fasting, mission, ecclesiology, how to deal with theological disagreements, sin, suffering, and far too much to even try to list.

I say all this to say I get to go with a church friend to drive to hear John Piper speak on Jonathan Edwards today at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. So I've been thinking about how I got to this point, the point of spending several hours in one day to go hear one man speak. Am I so gripped by his celebrity? Am I just a fan-boy?

I've been around long enough to not see John Piper as a hero or a celebrity. I go to hear a wise and sinful man speak about another wise and sinful man who both know their sinfulness and need for grace. I go to hear a man who knows himself well enough to realize he must pursue pleasure in God because of his great propensity to pursue pleasure in anything else. I don't go to see someone who's popular, but someone who has poured his life into mine through various means and who is coming near. So I'm thankful I get to be poured into again. 

I thank God for many saints, near and far, famous and completely unknown, who I owe so much. One will be speaking on Edwards. One will be sitting with me listening to Piper. One I have known mostly through books and sermons over years and the other I've known for a short time and we meet together every week to discuss theology, Calvin's Institutes, family, and faith. I'm blessed by and thankful for both, and both play an important role in my life. God is merciful to provide us such great gifts. 

Sharp, Memorable Sentences

Last week I was in a conversation with a church member I got to thinking about how John Piper's books are somewhat unique for me among the many books I've read. As I talked it out here's what I discovered but never really verbalized before.

When I read a John Piper book I come away with memorable sentences like I don't get from most other books. For example...

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. (Desiring God)

Missions exists because worship doesn't. (Let the Nations Be Glad)

The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever. (Desiring God)

"This much, O God, I want you." (A Hunger for God)

I read these books well over a decade ago and these sentences have been a part of me since. I couldn't shake them off if I wanted to. Notice that none of Piper's statements are cheap, cute, or clever. Piper's aim is the sharpness of the quote, not the cuteness. It's not that Piper is somehow a better guy, but he simply understands the importance of sharp, memorable sentences. Elsewhere Piper wrote...

I have often said, “Books don’t change people, paragraphs do — sometimes sentences.”

This may not be fair to books, since paragraphs find their way to us through books, and they often gain their peculiar power because of the context they have in the book. But the point remains: One sentence or paragraph may lodge itself so powerfully in our mind that its effect is enormous when all else is forgotten.

One lesson I learned from a few influential preachers like Mark Dever and Herschel York (as well as in preaching books) is to be able to boil down a sermon's point to one sentence. If I can't say the sermon in one sentence I'm not ready to preach it. At least, that's the idea. It's a similar principle.

For all who desire to change hearts, convince minds, to influence and teach, it would be good to consider the example of John Piper and his memorable sentences, with sharp barbs that lock them deep into our minds and hearts. We don't need to make every sentence memorable. But the rest of our sentences should serve our best sentences. It takes more work, but it deepens our impact. 

John Piper to Young John Piper

Mark Driscoll interviews John Piper on stereotypes, risks, & Jesus. This is the first question and the first part of Piper's response. Love this...

MARK DRISCOLL: WHAT WOULD JOHN PIPER TODAY TELL A YOUNG JOHN PIPER WHO IS GETTING READY TO ENTER INTO MINISTRY?

John Piper: I would quote to him V. Raymond Edman: “Don’t question in the dark what God showed you in the light.” Darkness comes. In the middle of it, the future looks blank. The temptation to quit is huge. Don’t. You are in good company. You are in the pit with King David. He waited. “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction” (Ps. 40:1–2). God will do that for you. You will argue with yourself that there is no way forward. But with God, nothing is impossible. He has more ropes and ladders and tunnels out of pits than you can conceive. Wait. Pray without ceasing. Hope.

Emotions That Correspond With the Weight of Reality

John Piper on George Whitefield again, on the acting of preaching as "real acting" (bold is mine)...

If a woman has a role in a movie, say, the mother of child in a burning house, and as the cameras are focused on her, she is screaming to the firemen and pointing to the window in the second floor, we all say she is acting. But if a house is on fire in your neighborhood, and you see a mother screaming to the firemen and pointing to the window in the second floor, nobody says she’s acting. Why not? They look exactly the same.

It’s because there really is a child up there in the fire. This woman really is the child’s mother. There is real danger that the child could die. Everything is real. And that’s the way it was for Whitefield. The new birth had opened his eyes to what was real, and to the magnitude of what was real: God, creation, humanity, sin, Satan, divine justice and wrath, heaven, hell, incarnation, the perfections of Christ, his death, atonement, redemption, propitiation, resurrection, the Holy Spirit, saving grace, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation with God, peace, sanctification, love, the second coming of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth, everlasting joy. These were real. Overwhelmingly real to him. He had been born again. He had eyes to see.

When he warned of wrath, and pleaded for people to escape, and lifted up Christ, he wasn’t play-acting. He was calling down the kind of emotions and actions that correspond with such realities. That’s what preaching does. It seeks to exalt Christ, and describe sin, and offer salvation, and persuade sinners with emotions and words and actions that correspond to the weight of these realities.

If you see these realities with the eyes of your heart, and if you feel the weight of them, you will know that such preaching is not play-acting. The house is burning. There are people trapped on the second floor. We love them. And there is a way of escape.

Read or listen to the rest of Piper's powerful talk on Whitefield. A great example and explanation of what preaching should be like. I don't think we do this well, not nearly well enough. Maybe this kind of preaching would change the face of Christianity in America and the western world today. Maybe it's not just the *how* of preaching but the *where* that would enact this change.

What do you think?

Speak Dramatically...Because It's Real

John Piper on George Whitefield and his dramatic preaching...

But the question is: Why was Whitefield “acting”? Why was he so full of action and drama? Was he, as Stout claims, “plying a religious trade”? Pursuing “spiritual fame”? Craving “respect and power”? Driven by “egotism”? Putting on “performances” and “integrating religious discourse into the emerging language of consumption”?

I think the most penetrating answer comes from something Whitefield himself said about acting in a sermon in London. In fact, I think it’s a key to understand the power of his preaching—and all preaching. James Lockington was present at this sermon and recorded this verbatim. Whitefield is speaking.

“I’ll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the [actor]. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . ‘pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why my Lord,’ says Butterton, ‘the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’”

“Therefore,” added Whitefield, ‘I will bawl [shout loudly], I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”

This means that there are three ways to speak. First, you can speak of an unreal, imaginary world as if it were real—that is what actors do in a play. Second, you can speak about a real world as if it were unreal—that is what half-hearted pastors do when they preach about glorious things in a way that says they are not as terrifying and wonderful as they are. And third is: You can speak about a real spiritual world as if it were wonderfully, terrifyingly, magnificently real (because it is).

Read or hear John Piper's entire bio of George Whitefield from the 2009 Desiring God Pastors' Conference.

Joy Ending & Joy Eternal

On Saturday I had the privilege to speak to a mausoleum full of people who lost and buried loved ones last year at McHenry County Memorial Park. An employee of the cemetery is a family friend, which opened the opportunity to preach for about 20 minutes from the first two Beatitudes. 

I wanted to share with you some free music from The Joy Eternal: A Sweet & Bitter Providence (download below) which I found to be very encouraging during my prep week for this event. John Piper readings are featured in these songs, and he says this about the music...

Big truth and beautiful sounds are a powerful combination. The Joy Eternal has touched me both ways. One of my biblical sieves for what is real is the apostolic word 'sorrowful yet always rejoicing.' I hear that in these songs, and they ring true. Beautifully true. May God give them wings.

Also check out The Joy Eternal on Facebook | Twitter

$1.99 on Kindle | Two Leadership Books

For $1.99 each on Kindle pick up John Piper's excellent book on pastoral ministry, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, and Dave Kraft's Re:Lit book, Leaders Who Last.

John Piper on Vision

A helpful word from John Piper about reminding our churches what we already know, over and over again. Andy Stanley's book, Making Vision Stick, is helpful on this point. And I'm still bad at it!

The Future of the Evangelist

After writing my series on open-air preaching, which I will likely add to at some point, I've become convinced of what I'm going to suggest in this post. I'd like to see an open discussion on it. Feel free to agree, disagree, or push-back in the comments.

Let me say this at the outset. My open-air posts were mostly geared toward local pastors preaching publicly in their local places. This post is looking beyond a pastor preaching locally.

Here's my thesis: The future of the evangelist, specifically the evangelist who moves beyond the barriers of their own community, city, or "parish," will be embraced by a well-known pastor (or a few of them) who will fill auditoriums, university campuses, and public spaces around the country with the preaching of the Gospel. Their reputation as planters, pastors, authors, and conference speakers have rightly given them reputations as powerful speakers who have a certain unction, and on that platform they will be able to gather crowds like few can and benefit the church wherever they preach.

Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not railing against pastors who have used their reputations to write books, speak at conferences, and create large ministries. For example, John Piper has an amazing and wonderful ministry of creating and distributing resources for the glory of God and the good of the church. I recommend Desiring God often and heartily. Such a blessing. So please don't hear me as saying that prominence that leads to these sorts of ministries is wrong. Not at all

My contention is this, and I have to make it concrete by using a real example: What would happen if Mark Driscoll became the staff evangelist of Mars Hill. They pay him well and give him a sufficient ministry budget. Then they commission him to spend X weeks a year preaching evangelistically around the country...indoors, outdoors, at scheduled times, at unscheduled times, in season, out of season, etc. His church reputation as well as a growing public reputation will open many doors for the Gospel.

I think this could be true of a number of people, such as Tim Keller, Mark Dever, Darrin Patrick, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, and others.

Imagine someone with public prominence, a good reputation among churches, and who is a compelling Gospel preacher set loose upon the world to preach to the many and to the one. These men not only have the reputations that have already laid the groundwork for this sort of evangelism, but they have the connections in major and minor U.S. cities (and beyond!) with good theologically sound, gospel-preaching churches so that their evangelistic work will immediately connect people to local churches rather than leave them hanging as the evangelist leaves town.

I'm not suggesting I know what God is leading any man to do. But I can't help but think that the right response for some preachers, who are seeing remarkable results and explosive church growth from their evangelistic preaching, is to take their preaching of the Gospel far beyond their city. Could this be the future of mass evangelism? Could this lead to the resurgence of good, theologically-sound missional open-air preachers?

I wonder if any of our great preachers are thinking in this direction. I wonder how some of the men I listed above would respond to this idea. I hope they will consider it. I think it would be an amazing development for the good of the church.

Cheap Kindle Books 10.5.11

Some good Kindle books for cheap right now...

• The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything by Fred Sanders | $2.99
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones | $4.99
• Think by John Piper | $2.99
• Stand by John Piper & Justin Taylor | $3.03
• Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes | $2.99
• 100 Kindle books for $3.99 or less
• Get a Kindle for as cheap as $79

Bloodlines by John Piper

John Piper's new book on race, Bloodlines (Kindle), is getting some buzz. Mostly because of the video at the end of this post, which you should watch. It's a trailer for a 20 minute documentary. Then today I noticed the forward is by Tim Keller. So, of course, I had to share that with you (via)...

I was excited when I learned that John Piper was writing a book on race and the gospel of the cross. When John gave me the privilege of reading the manuscript, I devoured it and found that despite my high expectations I was not disappointed. It was helpful to me personally, helpful to me theologically (in understanding the relevance of the gospel to racial conflict), and it was especially encouraging to me to think that many in the evangelical world would read it.

John and I are both old enough to remember the complicity of evangelical churches and institutions with the systemic racism in the US before the civil rights movement. I took my first church in a small town in the South in the early 1970s. The courts had recently ruled that the whites-only public swimming pool, operated by the town with taxpayers’ money, had to be integrated. So what did the town do? It shut the pool down completely, and the white people of the town opened a new private swimming pool and club, which of course, did not have to admit racial minorities. Because I was a young pastor, our family was often invited to swim there, and swim we did, not really cognizant of what the pool represented.

One of the reasons I think this book is so important is that conservative evangelicals (particularly white ones) seem to have become more indifferent to the sin of racism during my lifetime. Why? One reason, of course, is the stubbornness of the sinful heart. We never want to hear about what is wrong with us. Another factor may be cultural. Many have made racism and prejudice virtually the only thing they will still call a “sin,” and they often lay the guilt for the sin of racism at the doorstep of those who are social conservatives. Because of that, many who identify themselves as conservatives simply don’t want to hear about racism anymore. They give lip service to it being a sin, but they associate any sustained denunciation of racism with the liberal or secular systems of thought. John’s book is a strong antidote to this misconception. His motivation is simply as a preacher of the Word to bring to light what God says in it regarding race and racism.

There are many ways in which this book will help the church in its struggle with the sin of racism. First, John takes us to all the biblical texts that speak most directly to the subject of race. But—and this was most helpful to me—John does not stop there. He then goes to most of the central doctrines and themes of our faith and shows the implications of each one for our understanding of race. He demonstrates how Jesus’s proclamation of the kingdom, his substitutionary atonement, the doctrine of conversion, of union with Christ, of justification by faith—all transform our attitude toward our own race and culture as well as to those belonging to other races and cultures.

I won’t ever forget how one of the elders in my first church, who had been growing in his understanding of the gospel and of the cross of Jesus, said to me, “You know, I realize I’ve been a racist all my life.” I hadn’t spoken to him of racism at all, but as he was going deeper into the theology of grace, he connected the dots for himself. I must say that most of us are not that insightful, and that’s why we need this volume. Let John Piper connect the dots for you.

Tim Keller
February 2011
Foreword from Bloodlines by John Piper

John Piper: Think | $2.99 on Kindle

John Piper's book, Think, is only $2.99 on Kindle right now. Grab it!

Giveaway: Reclaiming Adoption

BOOK GIVEAWAY

I recently read and endorsed Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living Through Rediscovery of Abba Father (Kindle version only $5.99). Check out my endorsement & many others. Love this book by Dan Cruver, also with John Piper, Richard D. Phillips, Scotty Smith, and Jason Kovacs. There's a PDF study guide and sample of the book available.

By the way, Dan Cruver is also leading a breakout session at the Desiring God Pastor's Conference at 3:15-4:15pm this coming Tuesday. 

*****

So, to the point. I've been given the chance to host a GIVEAWAY of 5 COPIES of Reclaiming Adoption. Here's your chance to pick up one of the best books I've read in the last year.

Do this...

STEP 1: Copy & share the following without the quote marks on Twitter (if you aren't on Twitter, use Facebook, or do BOTH!): "Get a FREE copy of Reclaiming Adoption! RT this & comment at Reformissionary to win: http://bit.ly/ih1LeK "

STEP 2: Leave a comment below (so I can verify you did step 1). Include your full name and real email address (kept private) so I can contact the winners. For fun, also comment on your Super Bowl winner & score. 

I will randomly choose 5 winners in the late afternoon/early evening on Friday (28th).

GO!

Primer on Reformed Theology

An Arminian pastor who is doubting his theology asked me what would be a good primer on Reformed Theology. So I asked my Twitter followers for recommendations. Here's what I got...

• The Bethlehem Institute - Lectures on TULIP | John Piper (free online video)
• Chosen by God & What Is Reformed Theology? & Grace Unknown | RC Sproul
• Putting Amazing Back Into Grace | Michael Horton
• What we believe about the five points of Calvinism | Bethlehem Baptist Church
• The Doctrines of Grace | Boice & Ryken
• "A Defense of Calvinism" | Chuck Spurgeon
• Evangelism & The Sovereignty of God | Jimmy Packer
• Salvation Belongs to the Lord | John Frame
• Confessions of a Reformission Rev | Mark Driscoll
• What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace | Richard D. Phillips

Anyone read these two? No one mentioned them, but they look promising...

James K.A. Smith | Letters to a Young Calvinist: An Invitation to the Reformed Tradition

W. Robert Godfrey | An Unexpected Journey: Discovering Reformed Christianity

Additions since the post went up...

• Death By Love | Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
• The Sovereign Grace of God | James White
• Living For God's Glory | Joel Beeke
• Easy Chairs, Hard Words | Douglas Wilson
• Welcome to a Reformed Church | Daniel R. Hyde
• Redemption Accomplished & Applied | John Murray
• Sermon on Jonah 2:9 | Tim Keller (looking for exact link)
• Romans